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Alpha-07 and Alpha-08 continue to be asymptomatic for cross-contamination and remain viable control subjects. It is unknown why Alpha-07 remains nanite free considering her proximity to the nanites as they were activated by the aircraft mishap.

The questions churning through him were so big, so vast, he couldn’t even put a voice to them. All except one. “I’m Alpha-01?”

Tate nodded. “That’s what Dev thinks, and I agree with him. Right now, Davenport says they think you’re dead, and we have to make sure it stays that way.”

Benny continued to drink his coffee while Tate filled him in on the shooting that had occurred just forty-eight hours ago.

“Wait,” Benny said. “Jordan lost her shield?” He didn’t like that at all, for a reason he couldn’t quite name. “Her job is everything to her.”

“Yeah. She and Abel are both under IA investigation right now,” Tate said. “I don’t think there’ll be much appetite for giving them more than a slap on the wrist, though.”

“Why?” Benny asked.

“Because Mark Turner was so damn dirty. Benedict’s dead, Turner’s dead, we’ve got every bit of the attack on camera, both at the ranch in Arizona and at SMS headquarters, to include Abel bringing Turner into headquarters under a ruse.”

Then he guessed that made sense. “Who’s this Abel guy you guys keep talking about?”

“Abel Jones. He’s the undersheriff for Las Vegas Metro Police Department. We’ve done some work for him in the past when his hands were tied, or he didn’t have the manpower. Having Jordan as kind of a liaison on the force, even though she was undercover, has been a huge help. She and Abel have been suspended, which I guess is standard procedure.”

Benny whistled. “He’s the undersheriff? That’s the number two guy in the organization.”

Tate looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Since when have you been all up on the structure of LVMPD?”

Benny sat back against the couch cushion and thought about it. He didn’t have a good answer. Why would he know that? The average citizen had no idea about the rank organization within the police department.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Honestly, it’s pissing me off.” It was doing more than pissing him off. It made him feel vulnerable to know things he shouldn’t and not remember the things he should.

The door opening at the end of the hallway forestalled any other thoughts he might have had on the matter. Beth poked her head out, and he rose and opened his arms. She walked into them and just held him tight.

“I wanted to be out here when you woke up, but I was just so tired,” she said, her voice muffled against his shirt. She lifted her head, and he looked down into eyes identical to his own. “I missed you, idiot.”

He smiled and kissed the top of her head, then released her. “I missed you too, brat,” he said, his voice choked with emotion.

She took a step back and reached out, winding her fingers through Tate’s before tipping her face up for a kiss. He obliged, stopping just before Benny would have growled and broken it up.

Well, that answered the question about whether Beth returned Tate’s feelings. She was clearly smitten with him. The feelings he picked up from her were warm and happy, and he realized he’d felt them before. He couldn’t remember when, but it felt recent. Then he remembered Cali’s words from earlier that morning.

“Cali said something this morning, something about you feeling twin pain?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “I kept getting these phantom pains, almost from the day that you died.” She gulped, then corrected herself. “From the day the car hit you. Sometimes it was so much I’d black out, especially the last one. What did they do to you?” she asked, and her voice had gone small.

He shook his head. He wished to hell he knew.

Chapter Four

Jordan prowled her apartment for what seemed like hours trying not to think about what Benny’s return meant. About what she should do.

Should she find a way to get him alone and tell him everything? See if that brought back any of his memory? But every time she considered that line of attack, panic flooded in.

She’d already lost him once. If he didn’t remember them, she didn’t know if she could take the heartbreak a second time. Or worse, if he did remember, but didn’t feel the same way anymore.

God, she was so bad at introspection. She’d always been a take-charge woman, had been forced into it at a young age when she’d lost her mother and moved in with her aging grandmother. Sitting on the sidelines without a plan of action was totally out of character, be it about her job or Benny.

She finally gave in and called Devin. “I’m going crazy here. Is there anything I can do to help?” She purposely didn’t elaborate on which crazy event she meant.

“You can’t come to headquarters since it’s still an active crime scene that you’re involved in.” His words were clipped, firm. “But if you’re looking for a change of scene, I booked the conference room at the Zephyr until we can get back into our own space. We’ve got some job requests you can review, see if any are a fit once we get this mess squared away.”

Now that she could get behind. She’d cried everything out, had gotten ahold of herself. Figured she’d fake it until she made it when she was in the same room with Benny. But in order to do that, she needed to be busy, so she wouldn’t succumb to the whirlpool of angst she was currently caught up in. “That sounds great. I’ll be there in a few. Do we have any security protocols I need to be aware of in the conference room?”